With new iPhone, Apple has some catching up to do

By Doug Gross, CNN

Updated 11:45 AM ET, Tue September 10, 2013

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Six years of iPhone launches – There have been six models of the iPhone since Apple introduced the pioneering device in 2007. This week should bring the seventh (and maybe the eighth). Here's a look at Apple's brief history of iPhone launches.

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Original iPhone -- 2007 – Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the iPhone to the world January 9, 2007, at the Macworld conference in San Francisco. It went on sale five months later. It seems quaint now, but the original Getty Images photo caption that day described "a new mobile phone that can also be used as a digital music player and a camera, a long-anticipated device dubbed an 'iPhone.' "

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iPhone 3G -- 2008 – Steve Jobs announces the second edition of the phone, the iPhone 3G, at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 9, 2008. It worked on 3G cellular networks and was the first iPhone priced at Apple's now-standard $199 with a phone contract (for the basic model).

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iPhone 3GS -- 2009 – Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of marketing, introduces the iPhone 3GS at Apple's WWDC event on June 8, 2009. Schiller filled in for an ailing Steve Jobs, who was on medical leave. The 3GS was the first iPhone to shoot video.

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iPhone 4 -- 2010 – Steve Jobs was back to unveil the iPhone 4 on June 7, 2010, at Apple's developers conference. The phone boated a high-res "retina display" and a new, more angular design, but suffered from an antenna flaw that caused weak signals and dropped calls for many consumers. In a rare move, Apple held a press conference a month later and offered free "bumpers" to address the antenna issue.

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iPhone 4S -- 2011 – New Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled the iPhone 4S at the company's Cupertino, California, headquarters on October 4, 2011 -- the first time he had introduced a new product since Jobs stepped down in August. It was a bittersweet day for Cook, who knew Jobs was near death. Indeed, Jobs died the next day after a long battle with cancer.

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iPhone 5 -- 2012 – Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller announced the iPhone 5 on September 12, 2012, in San Francisco. The new model featured a slightly larger screen and a new connector for charging the battery.

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iPhone ?? -- 2013 – Apple included this image in the media invite for its September 10, 2013, press event. Most observers expect the company to unveil an upgraded iPhone, possibly called the iPhone 5S, and a cheaper model as well.

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Story highlights

Apple is expected to introduce new iPhones on Tuesday

Many say company needs to make a splash to match its competitors

Past two iPhone upgrades were viewed as incremental by some

Analyst: Other products, not the iPhone, may re-establish Apple's rep for innovation

When Apple introduces new iPhones on Tuesday, as everyone expects them to do, the company that practically created the smartphone will face an unusual task: keeping up with the competition.

There's still plenty to be said for the iPhone's sleek, simple design, easy-to-navigate operating system and tidy "closed garden" app environment.

But as phones running Google's Android operating system, particularly Samsung's, have gained in popularity, iPhone owners have increasingly found themselves looking around and wondering, "Why can't my phone do that?"

Many Android phones have bigger screens than the iPhone. Some are water-resistant and can even snap photos underwater. Android apps can update automatically. Users can control Motorola's new Moto X phone with their voice, without touching it. And that's just the beginning.

Add to that the fact that many in the tech world saw the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 as incremental advances, not the seismic leaps forward we'd come to expect from Apple, and you've got the more pressure on the company to ramp up the "wow!" factor.

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"The smartphone market is more competitive overall, and in the high-end it has become a duopoly between Samsung and Apple," said Carolina Milanesi, a consumer-technology researcher with Gartner Research. "Many feel that Apple needs to regain the distance they once had over their competitors."

The iPhone has remained the world's top selling smartphone, save for a few quarters when it was dethroned by phones in Samsung's Galaxy S line. But after making up nearly 24% of all smartphones sold in late 2011, Apple's device is now down to about 14%, while Android phones account for a whopping 79%.

The iPhone and iPad "were revolutionary when they first came out, but (rival)products that are out there now are about as close to Apple's devices as they've ever been," Scott Kessler, an analyst at S&P Capital IQ, told CNNMoney. "The question is whether Apple is going to introduce products that are different enough from their competitors."

There are reports the phone could be able to access LTE Advanced, a network that would make it faster than phones with 4G connections. That network is not yet available in many areas of the U.S., however.

As usual, Apple is expected to upgrade the phone with a faster processor, better battery life and an improved camera. But those are the sort of pragmatic upgrades that, while arguably most important to user experience, don't turn heads the way a novelty like Siri, the iPhone 4S's voice-activated digital assistant, did in 2011.

Milanesi says Apple needs something more than standard upgrades to get its mojo back. But that shot of adrenalin might arrive in an unconventional way.

"Apple needs a new 'hero product,' but I do not think it necessarily has to be a phone," she said. "With technology innovation slowing down, maybe they are better off turning iPhone into a market-share grabber and showing innovation in another product."

The most likely candidate there could be the company's anticipated "iWatch." Apple is all but certain to be joining the emerging smartwatch market that Samsung entered last week with its Galaxy Gear device.

If Apple blows away the competition with a watch that transcends the existing options (as well as those expected from Google and Microsoft), it could bring back some of the excitement that once met the unveiling of groundbreaking products like the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Opinions are split as to whether Apple will introduce a watch Tuesday. Apple typically doesn't launch other major products at iPhone events. But an iWatch rollout later this year or in early 2014 would miss at least some of the coveted holiday-shopping season while giving Samsung and other smartwatch makers a big head start in the marketplace.

Then there's the long anticipated, but yet unseen, Apple TV set (as opposed to the Apple TV streaming device that already exists). Moving onto customer wrists, and into living rooms, might deflate pressure to sex up the iPhone.

Still, it's hard to imagine a tech world in which the iPhone isn't seen as an elite device. That's why, when CEO Tim Cook takes the stage Tuesday in Cupertino, all eyes will be on him.